


Death of an X-Man

by buckythevampireslayer



Category: X-Factor (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-03 23:36:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckythevampireslayer/pseuds/buckythevampireslayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rictor is killed in battle. This is his funeral.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death of an X-Man

**Author's Note:**

> All I can say is I'm sorry? 
> 
> Is my fandom privilege going to be revoked for this?

It was supposed to be a simple in-and-out job. Just a small investigation, to help an old woman find her son who had “fallen in with the wrong crowd”. It had sounded so easy in theory. The boy had been easy enough to track, even easier to get somewhere private to talk to.

The actual talking wasn’t quite so easy. Apparently, the last thing this kid wanted was to see his family again. They had expected that, to be honest. That seemed to be the way these things generally went. What they hadn’t expected was for the kid to have some very powerful, very evil friends-- namely, Hydra-- who were very keen on eliminating them.

“Dammit!” Jamie swore as he hit the ground and three dupes were thrown into existence. He didn’t reabsorb them, hoping that they’d be able to come together enough to be an asset in the fight. Honestly, they needed all the hands they could get. They couldn’t afford uncooperative dupes.

He glanced around quickly to see how the rest of the team was doing. Shatterstar and Longshot, as usual, seemed to be having the time of their lives fighting the mooks, and he couldn’t find the others. That worried him, but he pushed it down. They would be fine, everyone on the team knew how to take care of themselves.

He turned his focus back to his own fight, shouting in surprised anger when both he and his opponent were thrown to the ground by a heavy quake. “Rictor! What the hell d’you think you’re doing?” He glanced over his shoulder to see if he could find Rictor in the chaos and get some sort of response. “Ric--” He was cut off by a shout from Star, who was throwing himself into the middle of the fight. Jamie groaned. Now was not the time for Mojoworld theatrics. “Star! We do not have time for this! Just...” he trailed off, watching Star slice his way through the crowd of people. Anyone who came within a three-foot radius got a sword to the face or stomach.

In under two minutes, the whole lot had been cleared of Hydra agents, and Jamie could see every member of his team standing and dusting themselves off. Except for Star, who had thrown himself to the ground and was holding one of the agents. Jamie froze.

“Shit.” That wasn’t a Hydra agent. The rest of the team seemed to come to the conclusion at the same time, all of them rushing over to his side.

“Julio. Julio, you’re going to be alright,” Star was muttering over and over, running his fingers through Rictor’s hair to keep it out of his face. Rictor smiled up at him brokenly, his teeth covered in blood.

“No I’m not,” he said simply, not sounding too upset. He tried to lift a hand to place on Star’s face, but his arm was too weak to lift up high enough. Shatterstar grabbed the hand in one of his own and brought it up to his cheek, turning his head to kiss it. Rictor smiled at him again. “Te amo.”

Shatterstar nodded. “I love you, too, Julio,” he whispered softly, running his fingers through Rictor’s hair.

Jamie turned away. He couldn’t watch this, it felt too... intimate, somehow. This was their moment, he couldn’t intrude on it. Slowly, he walked away, hands stuffed in his pockets. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned slightly to see Layla standing behind him. She held her arms out in invitation and he took it, hugging her tightly and burying his face in her shoulder.

“It’s not fair,” he mumbled. Layla nodded and stroked his hair softly.

“I know, Jamie. I know.” He almost asked her if she had known, if she had stood back during the fight and let Rictor get hurt, but decided against it. He knew how hard this life was on her. It wasn’t fair that Ric was dying, but it wasn’t fair to blame her for it, either. “We need to go back over to the others, Jamie.” He nodded and let her lead him over to the group.

Shatterstar was on his feet pinning Layla to the nearest wall as soon as the two reached them. She didn’t so much as flinch, even when he rested his swords on both sides of her neck. “Bring him back.” Star was glaring at her through his still-obvious tears. Layla gave him a sympathetic look.

“You know I can’t.” He growled at her. She flinched slightly for the first time.

“Yes you can. Do what you did with Guido for Julio.” He slammed her against the wall harder when she didn’t answer. “You knew! You had to know this was going to happen, and you did nothing, and now you won’t even touch him to bring him back! Did Julio mean that little to you?”

“Yes!” Layla shouted. Shatterstar dropped his weapons in surprise. “Yes, I didn’t care about him at all. He was worthless to me. A worthless, meaningless pig, that’s what he was.” She glared at him, tears shining in her eyes. “That what you wanted to hear, Star? Believe me, I wish I hated Rictor. I wish I hated all of you. It would make this so much easier. But I don’t. You guys are like my family. And I know what’s going to happen to every single one of you in the future, how you all die.

“And it hurts. It hurts me every day, to go through this and act like I haven’t seen every last one of you die. I thought I could stop it, that I could try and fight fate with Guido, and guess what, I can’t. And I’m sorry, Shatterstar. But Rictor had to die today. That was the way it had to go. And I can’t risk changing that again.” She turned on her heel and stormed away angrily. Shatterstar looked like he wanted to go after her for a second, but instead went back to his spot on the ground, pulling Rictor into his arms again.

Jamie walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. “Star...” Shatterstar shoved him away.

After a moment, Jamie sighed and turned to follow Layla. He couldn’t be there, looking at Rictor lying so still on the ground. He was supposed to be the team leader, and Rictor had died while under his watch. If it was anyone’s fault, it was his.

\-----

The funeral wasn’t what Jamie had been expecting. He had thought that it would be the team, maybe a few of Ric and Star’s old friends from their X-Force days. He hadn’t expected half the superhero community to show up.

“Madrox.” He turned at the sound of his name to see Pietro walking towards him soberly.

“Maximoff,” he replied without any of his usual venom. He couldn’t find the energy to be mad at Pietro. The last week had been hard on the whole team, most of them had gotten less than eight hours of sleep overall. Pietro went to place a hand on his shoulder but seemed to think better of it.

“I’m sorry.” Jamie nodded. After a second, Pietro nodded back and walked up to the front of the church where his nephews were sitting. Jamie sighed. He felt arms wrap around his waist and turned his head to find Layla behind him.

“He really is, you know,” she said. Jamie wasn’t even surprised that she knew what had been said.

“I know he is. Doesn’t make me want to talk to him any more. He hurt Ric, Layla. He hurt you. I don’t want him here.” And he was fairly certain Rictor wouldn’t have, either. But it wasn’t his place to kick people out of the funeral for petty personal squabbles. Much as he disliked Pietro and hated the way he had used Rictor, he was there to grieve, just like everyone else. Layla nodded her understanding against his shoulder.

“I know. You’re a good friend. Loyal.” She smirked slightly at him. “Stubborn to a fault, but loyal. And I love you because of it.” He smiled softly back at her. She pulled back and grabbed his hand. “Service is about to start. Come on,” she said, pulling him up to the front pew and sitting him down.

He settled back as John Maddox came out of a back room and stood at the front of the church. It was still strange, that one of his dupes had become a priest and was so good at it. It had been a stroke of luck, getting him to come up to New York for the ceremony. He felt like Rictor would have appreciated that they got him and not some priest who didn’t know anything about him.

\----

Sam was the first person to speak, sharing the story about trying to talk to Rictor about his sexuality when they were on X-Force together, making everyone laugh. Everyone’s little moments up front blurred together after that, all of them being basic reiterations of the same things.

Shatterstar was the last to speak. He stepped up to the pulpit and stared out at the church full of people silently for a moment. After a minute, he cleared his throat and looked down at the sheets of paper clutched in his hand.

“Rahne helped me write this,” he said quietly. He glanced up again. Slowly, he folded the papers in half and placed them on the stand. “I can’t read it. It was very sweet, everything she helped me get down on the paper. But when I looked it over last night, I couldn’t recognize Julio in it at all.”

He sighed. “I’ve never been to a funeral before. We don’t have them on Mojoworld. There, you die, and that’s it. I’ve seen them on the vids since coming here though. I didn’t like them.” There was a small laugh from the crowd and he smiled brokenly at them.

“Everyone who I saw speak at one would give a heartfelt speech about how perfect and flawless the one who died was, no matter what they thought of them before that. It always felt so false to me, how no one would say anything like that while the people were alive, only when they had died. That’s why I can’t read the speech that Rahne wrote. She highlighted Julio’s good parts, but ignored that flaws that made him Julio.

“Julio was... stubborn. He didn’t listen to others when they tried to tell him he was wrong, he argued about everything, and he was very set in things being his way. He got angry too easily. He was overly defensive. He was possessive in our relationship, getting jealous easily. He never talked about how he felt about anything and kept his emotions bottled up until they exploded. He offended people and didn’t care. Sometimes, he would sulk for days on end. Julio was argumentative, uncooperative, jealous, and rude.” The whole crowd was staring up at Shatterstar wide-eyed, unable to believe he would say something like that at his boyfriend’s funeral, no matter how little he understood about Earth. He smiled softly.

“However, he was also the best man I ever knew. When I first came to Earth, I understood nothing about it, or it’s people or culture. No one was particularly keen on helping me to understand, either. They all thought I was strange.” Shatterstar laughed. “They were right, of course, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have liked some help. And I finally got someone who was willing to help me and put up with me once Julio joined X-Force. He was my first friend. He was also the first person I ever loved. I didn’t realize that was what it was at first, of course. I still didn’t understand emotions very well at that point. Honestly, I still don’t. But he was willing to stay with me and put up with all of that.

“When we first began our relationship as something more than friends, Julio was scared. He didn’t want anyone else on the team finding out about us, and it made him uncomfortable to be affectionate where they might see. So, I learned Spanish, and he learned Cadre, so that we could communicate without having to worry about that.” Shatterstar wiped at his eyes furiously. “We weren’t able to really be together until we left the team for Mexico. But then, his family was around, and that made him even more jumpy. So, I left. I understood so little about emotion as it was, I couldn’t figure out what was happening with him.” Shatterstar was crying openly now, not bothering to hide it from the others at the funeral.

“If I could change one thing in my life-- just one, over all the many things I want to-- it would be my leaving him in Mexico. It cut our time together so much shorter than it could have been, and I just wish--” he cut himself short with a quiet sob. The whole church was silent, no one knowing what to do.

Layla was the one who finally broke the reverie, walking up to the pulpit and wrapping her arm around Shatterstar’s shoulders. She slipped a small slip of paper into his hand and he gave her a watery, grateful smile. After a moment he nodded to her to let her know he was alright, and Layla stepped back, though she didn’t return to her seat next to Jamie in the front row.

Star cleared his throat once more, quietly. “I have a poem. I saw it read in a movie that Julio and I watched together.” A small smile played at his lips. “Well, he was in the room sleeping, while I watched it. I thought it seemed appropriate.” He glanced at the slip of paper in his hands and began reading.

“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,  
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,  
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum  
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead  
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,  
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,  
Let the traffic Police men wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,  
My working week and my Sunday rest,  
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;  
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;  
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;  
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.  
For nothing now can ever come to any good.”

As he finished the poem, he looked up at the ceiling of the church. “I love you Julio, you stupid, stubborn man. I always have, and I always will, more than I love anyone else. I know I flirted, and I did things I shouldn’t have that made you question our relationship, but it was always you, and only you. I will miss you. Good-bye.”

Jamie was pretty sure there wasn’t a single person in the room who wasn’t crying as Shatterstar stepped back from the pulpit and walked over to the coffin, placing his hand on the lid before returning to his seat. He knew he was.

\-----

The luncheon after the funeral was the most subdued Jamie had ever seen the superhero community, and he had been around for the Civil War and the final Phoenix incident. He wasn’t sure he liked the community this way. Rictor definitely would have; while the man had struggled with being happy his whole life, he had always hated it when others were unhappy. Maybe his depression problems had been part of the reason. Jamie wouldn’t be able to ask him now if that was the case.

Noticing Shatterstar and Rahne sitting off to the side, Jamie went to join them. Rahne gave him a small smile as she rubbed circles in Star’s back. Jamie patted the man on the shoulder.

“That was a great speech, Star. I think Ric would have liked it,” he said quietly. Shatterstar smiled up at him.

“Thank you, Madrox.” Jamie nodded.

“You ever need anything, buddy...” he trailed off, hoping Star would understand what he was trying to say. Rahne was about to say something when a Hispanic woman walked up to the trio. Shatterstar stiffened when he saw her.

“Mrs. Richter.” She smiled at him.

“I’ve told you before that you can call me by my first name, dear,” she said, her Mexican accent heavy. Jamie realized that this must be Rictor’s mother. He hadn’t expected her to come. Judging by Star’s strained face, he hadn’t, either.

“Very well,” Star replied curtly. None of them said anything for a long while.

“I wanted to thank you,” Mrs. Richter said. Star’s head shot back up and he gave her his usual confused look. “You took care of Julio. You showed him more love than we ever did, that was obvious when the two of you came to Guadelajara. I know I should have been a better step-mother to him. I will take blame for why he was so broken.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I think you saved him, though. And I wanted to thank you for that.”

“You were not a bad step-mother.” Mrs. Richter gave him a look that was so Ric that Jamie could hardly believe she wasn’t blood related.

“We both know I was. I just wish I had taken the chance to make it up to him when I still could.” The woman wiped a single tear from her eye.

Shatterstar shrugged. “I wish you had, too.” Jamie almost rolled his eyes at how typically Star that was, but he stopped himself. This wasn’t the time for his usual humor and sarcasm. “But wishing will not bring Julio back.” With that, Star pushed himself up from his seat and left the room, leaving the other three to awkwardly look at each other, not sure if they should follow or not.

\-----

Shatterstar just wanted these people to leave him alone. Everyone kept coming up to him, offering condolences and asking how he was feeling.  
He didn’t understand why they asked that. What did they expect him to say-- that he was okay, even though the man he loved was buried, gone? That everything was fine? It wasn’t. Julio was dead. He would never see him laugh again, or talk with him; never hold him, kiss him, make love to him, ever again.

There was nothing “fine” about the way he was feeling. Why could none of them see that?

A shadow fell over him as someone walked up behind him. He didn’t turn around, knowing that whoever it was would say something eventually.

“Hey.” After a second Star placed the voice-- Bobby Drake, Iceman.

“Thank you for your condolences. I am doing fine,” Star said with a sigh. Bobby laughed.

“I can see why he liked you.” The X-Man sat down next to Star on the church steps, leaning his elbows on his knees. “Ric was a good kid. I knew him when he first came to America, you know that?” Shatterstar shook his head, though he figured it was meant to be a rhetorical question. Bobby continued, seeming not to have noticed. “The original X-Factor team, we were the ones who saved him from the Right. He stayed with us for a while.” He sighed. “I’m gonna miss him. I mean, we haven’t really talked for a long while, but it’s different thinking that he’s not there at all.”

Shatterstar couldn’t think of anything to say. He didn’t know why Iceman was telling him all this. They had only met briefly, twice, and neither meeting was particularly memorable.

“He had a crush on me when he was a kid, you know,” Bobby said with a fond smile. So that was why he was talking to him. “It was kinda cute. He was so scared of it though.” He turned to Star with a smile. “You talked about Mexico. In your speech.” The Mojoworlder nodded slowly. “He left there not long after you. We hung out sometimes, when I was still living in New York. And can I just say, man, you did a number on him. He was hung up over you for a long time.”

“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?” Shatterstar asked. Because it’s working, he didn’t add. Bobby shook his head, looking confused.

“No. I was just trying to say that all that stuff you said, about how much you loved him-- he did too. It was mutual. I thought you might like to hear that, I know how emotionally constipated he is,” Bobby said. Star smiled minutely.

“He was terrible with emotions,” he admitted. Bobby laughed.

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one.” He sobered up and stood, holding a hand out for Star. “Longshot’s looking for you. You ready to come back out of hiding?”  
Shatterstar stared at the hand for a long time, trying to decide if he was. Finally, he nodded and took the hand. Bobby grinned as he helped him stand.

“Good man.” He clapped him on the shoulder, turning him back towards the building and leading him inside.

Star knew he was in for more people butting in and asking him questions or offering support. He knew he was going to hate it. But he also knew Julio was probably laughing his ass off somewhere at how funny it was when he failed at the interactions. That made it more bearable, somehow. So, he let himself be led inside.

**Author's Note:**

> The poem Shatterstar reads is Stop All the Clocks by W.H. Auden. For those that don't know the movie he's referring to, it is Four Weddings and a Funeral.


End file.
